Hardcore!

"Hardcore" doesn't refer to us. Instead it describes those brave souls who took to the icy sea in Peel for the annual New Years Day dip. Ian, Jess and myself in contrast were wrapped in fleece, shrouded in our dry suites and afloat in our luxurious sea kayaks as we paddled out of Peel today. After an hour or so of hard paddling we stopped off in the harbour to practice our skills. At this point I relearned a salutary lesson. I rolled 7 or 8 times, a couple of re-entry and roles, followed by dry re-entries. I've done these a thousand times. Finally after attempting to establish just how far I could crawl along the top of my kayak to the bow and then paddle along, I unceremoniously re-entered the Irish Sea with a splash. No problem, I'll just re-enter and role back up, except that it suddenly seemed so much more difficult than it had just 15 minutes earlier. Nor did I care. I was just happy floating as I felt slightly drunk. These are the first signs of hypothermia. I realised, got back aboard and off we paddled to the warmth of our cars. I'm still frozen some two hours later as I'm writing this .............. I think I'm off for another hot coffee! You have to admire those New Year dippers!